Paddleboards
Flat until about eleven, most mornings.
From the beach hut, seven until seven. Boards, paddles, leashes and a vest.
Hours, rates and how to get one
- Where
- The beach hut,
end of the lower path - Hours
- 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Every day - Rate
- $25 an hour
Ask at the hut - Boards
- Eight, and two of them
take two people
Boards go out from the hut, and the quickest way is to call down.
The team at the hut know what the water is doing and will tell you whether it is worth it this morning. They hold boards back for guests who call ahead.
The beach hut 1 800 555 0164 Or dial 4 from any room phone, seven until seven
When to go
The bay is glass before eleven and choppy by two.
The headland takes the prevailing wind off the bay, so the water inside it is usually flat first thing and gets a chop on it when the breeze fills in around midday. Most mornings you can paddle the whole curve of the beach and out to the marker without working at it.
Past the marker the water is open and the current runs north, which is a different proposition and the hut will tell you so.
Two of the eight boards take two people, which is how most first-timers start.
The practical part
If you have never done it
Say so at the hut. Somebody walks into the shallows with you for ten minutes, which is genuinely all it takes, and there is no charge for it. Start on one of the two wide boards.
Vests and leashes
A vest and a leash come with every board and both are worn, not carried. Under 16 wears the vest inflated.
Where you can and cannot go
Inside the marker line, which is the whole bay and about a mile of paddling. Past the marker the current runs north and the hut will not send a board out there.
Weather
The hut stops sending boards out above about fifteen knots, which is roughly one day in six, and they will tell you the night before if it looks that way.
Also at the beach hut
Emerald Pool
If the bay has a chop on it, the pool never does. Two minutes up the path.
Cabanas and daybeds